Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia (Jugoslavija in South Slavic languages, Југославија (Serbian, Macedonian Cyrillic): \"Land of the South Slavs\") describes three separate political entities that existed on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe, during most of the 20th century. more...

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The Kingdom of Yugoslavia (December 1, 1918–April 17, 1941), also known as the First Yugoslavia, was a monarchy formed as the \"Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes\" after World War I and re-named on January 6, 1929 by Alexander I of Yugoslavia. It was invaded on April 6, 1941 by the Axis powers and capitulated eleven days later.

The Second Yugoslavia (c.1943-), a socialist successor state to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, existed under various names, including the \"Democratic Federation of Yugoslavia (DFY)\" (1943), the \"Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (FPRY)\" (1946), and the \"Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY)\" (1963). It disintegrated following the Yugoslav Wars, which led to the secession of most of the constituent elements of the SFRY.

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) (1992) was a federation on the territory of the two remaining republics of Serbia (including the autonomous provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo and Metohija) and Montenegro.

On February 4, 2003, the state transformed into a loose commonwealth called Serbia and Montenegro and officially abolished the name \"Yugoslavia.\" On June 3 and June 5, 2006, Montenegro and Serbia respectively declared their independence, thereby ending the last remnants of the former Yugoslav federation.

Background

Southern Slavic State

The first idea of a state for all South Slavs emerged in the late 17th century, a product of visionary thinking of Croat writers and philosophers who believed that the only way for southern Slavs to regain lost freedom after centuries of occupation under the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Ottoman Empire would be to unite and free themselves of tyrannies and dictatorships. They gave it the name Ilirski Pokret (Illyric Movement) and gathered many prominent Croatian intellectuals and politicians around the new idea, but the movement started gaining large momentum only at the end of the 19th century, mainly because of the harsh policies against any freedom movements occupied southern Slavs could possibly have, practiced by both Austrian and Hungarian dictators. As the Ottoman Empire grew weaker and Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece grew stronger after the Berlin Congress, hope for sovereignty of the South Slavic peoples in the Habsburg Empire (Austria-Hungary) increased and the idea of a union between them became stronger.

During the early period of the World War I (which started in 1914), a number of prominent political figures, including Ante Trumbić, Ivan Meštrović, Nikola Stojanović and others, from South Slavic lands under the Habsburg Empire, fled to London where they began work on forming Yugoslav Committee and their mission was to represent the south Slavs of the empire. They chose London as their headquarters.

Read more at Wikipedia.org